Houston Rockets: James Harden’s three-point shooting heating back up

Houston Rockets guard James Harden’s three-point shooting is heating back up on the heels of Western Conference Player of the Week honors. What’s up?

The Houston Rockets finished up last week with a 3-0 record and look to head into this week with the same kind of mindset, with them attempting to win every game that’s in front of them.  The task is not impossible but it’s going to take a concerted, notable effort from the guys to get it all done.

They’ll be taking on New Orleans Pelicans (2-7) tonight on the road, the Los Angeles Clippers (6-3) Wednesday at home with a back-to-back starting with the Indiana Pacers (6-4) Friday and the Minnesota Timberwolves (5-4) Saturday night.

Could they finish up the week 4-0?  We’re about to find out and it’s going to be damn fun to watch them do so.  I’m all for anything for this team to climb as high as possible in the standings as it’s paramount for them to do so.

The team’s defense has gotten a bit better over the past few games but their efficiencies still rank near the bottom of the barrel.  They’ve allowed just 102 points per game over the last three versus 136.7 PPG over the previous three.

So there are signs of this team finally hitting their stride and Mike D’Antoni thinks is that his guys weren’t quite conditioned for the season just yet so I’d imagine that they’ll be just fine once we get to December.

He’s got a hell of a supporting cast in Russell Westbrook, Clint Capela, P.J. Tucker, Danuel House and Eric Gordon.

Speaking of the uptick that’s happening with the Houston Rockets, how about that James Harden?

Harden, who started the season, shooting as low as 22.2 percent from behind-the-arc on average,

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has now elevated himself back to where he’s used to being.

After shooting just 12.5 percent from three against the Brooklyn Nets back Nov. 1, Harden has shot 40.5 percent from three over the past four games.  That boots his seasonal total to 30 percent overall but he’s making leaps and bounds to get back on track.

Despite all of that, Harden is on a frenetic pace to score more points than he did last season overall as he’s the best at finding deft ways to get the ball into the hoop.

His strong level of play has warranted him earning the Western Conference Player of the Week honors, his first of the season — I’m sure first of many — to demonstrate that he’s ready to make another campaign to win another MVP award.

Harden averaged 40.7 points, 8.0 rebounds, 9.3 dimes and 2.3 steals last week and that’s definitely the outlier that got this man to the finish line in the voting.

We haven’t seen anything yet, especially when the Beard hits his stride — let’s go Houston Rockets!